Graduate School Applications - graduating with no clue

  • This has become our largest and most active forum because the physics GRE is just one aspect of getting accepted into a graduate physics program.
  • There are applications, personal statements, letters of recommendation, visiting schools, anxiety of waiting for acceptances, deciding between schools, finding out where others are going, etc.

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greenglobs
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jul 07, 2004 11:01 am

Graduate School Applications - graduating with no clue

Post by greenglobs » Wed Jul 07, 2004 11:16 am

I am going to be applying for graduate school this fall. If anyone else out there wants to share their experiences that would be most helpful. Its not like I have ever applied to a grad school before. Also if anyone has information on how early we should start applications that would be great also. thanks.

janeway
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Jul 01, 2004 3:11 pm

Application advice

Post by janeway » Thu Aug 05, 2004 2:13 pm

Dear Greenglobs,
Something I discovered that's totally new to me are the loads of advice out there for admissions essays and written portions of your application. I never knew, but there are dozens upon dozens of services that will review your submissions for language, creativity, correctness, desirability, and they are even tailored for the type of grad school application. I hve never used this stuff before, and I'm personally a little adverse to it as it seems to quiver on plaigarism, yet some of the services are no different from handing your essay to your mom for her opinion, except in this case, your mom is supposedly a grad school prof or equivalent experienced admissions person.
Good luck,
Janeway

Grant
site admin
Posts: 193
Joined: Tue May 11, 2004 7:55 pm

Personal statement editing services and applications tip

Post by Grant » Thu Aug 05, 2004 6:00 pm

Hi janeway,

It was news to me when I first heard about those essay editing services as well. I think they are a good idea and I would not have any moral qualms with paying someone a small fee to proofread and make suggestions to improve my essay. The way I see it is if I had a close family friend that was both expert at editing personal statements and willing to read over my essay then I would certainly utilize the resource that was available to me. Thanks for your post as I am glad you brought up that topic.

Anyway, regardless of ones self perceived notions of moral supremacy, I believe most everybody would agree that it is both moral and intelligent to look at essay writing tips as well as preview some samples of well written essays (Caution to the overly self-righteous: The content of those pages is provided by EssayEdge which so happens to also provide a fee based essay editing service). Anyway, I have been meaning to create a section on the main site about writing personal statements for quite some time now. For now however, those two pages will suffice to at least let people know that there are resources available to help with writing a quality personal statement.

greenglobs,

Sorry your post went so long without a reply. I was hoping that someone else would have something to say about the applications process since I am both not very knowledgeable about the process and I also do not find the topic very interesting (lack of knowledge and lack of interest often to travel in pairs). However, the applications process is important.

Perhaps everybody could add to this post with at least one little tip or suggestion that they have to share about the graduate school applications process. O.K. here goes my little tip:

1) I think it is a good idea to give the professors who will be writing your letters of recommendation envelopes that are already addressed to the appropriate graduate schools and also to have each envelope already stamped (the peel and stick envelopes are better than suggesting your professors lick envelopes). I’m sure most people probably already know to do this but I am just trying to get the tips and suggestions rolling.

X-Ray
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Jul 12, 2004 2:23 pm

Post by X-Ray » Thu Aug 05, 2004 6:19 pm

2. Check out the following:

http://www.etsu.edu/wcc/advice_from_admissions_pros.htm

I've got more if you're interested. It is for law school hopefuls, but the same ideas apply.

X-Ray

kay
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Sep 04, 2004 9:06 pm

Proofreading, editing etc.

Post by kay » Sat Sep 04, 2004 10:07 pm

I have my essays etc. proofread by a friend who is a college prof in English and a writer. I actually don't pay him per essay but I send him Amazon gift certificates or buy him books from his wishlist for his help.
When applying to grad school I would for sure get my essay checked by one of these services mentioned as well.

I think if you really want to go to a certain school you shouldn't spare the cost and effort. I wouldn't want to imagine being rejected and then thinking, 'what if I had...'

Just my 2 cents...

Kay

dana
Posts: 2
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 12:19 pm

Post by dana » Wed Dec 22, 2004 1:13 pm

hey,
could anyone tell me some web-sites to find out about possibilities for phd students in the US? school pages where i could find the subjects of disertation thesis and supervisors' names and stuff. i'm not american, i am in the first year of phd program in slovakia and i haven't find many useful pages so far. thanks

MacCutcheon60
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2009 9:16 pm

Re: Graduate School Applications - graduating with no clue

Post by MacCutcheon60 » Wed Feb 10, 2010 1:53 am

Hi Dana, I would recommend starting with the webpages of various physics departments you might be interested in. Searching by a particular subfield of physics that you're interested in can help narrow things down. G'luck with everything.

ultraballer2000
Posts: 59
Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2009 4:51 pm

Re: Graduate School Applications - graduating with no clue

Post by ultraballer2000 » Wed Feb 10, 2010 2:08 am

yo dude, I hate to break it to you but that post was from almost six years ago, they probably have their phd by now.

MacCutcheon60
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2009 9:16 pm

Re: Graduate School Applications - graduating with no clue

Post by MacCutcheon60 » Wed Feb 10, 2010 2:20 am

Oh, and buy stock in Apple

pqortic
Posts: 398
Joined: Fri Aug 29, 2008 9:24 am

Re: Graduate School Applications - graduating with no clue

Post by pqortic » Wed Feb 10, 2010 2:41 am

I wish you haven't answered them by private message!

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noojens
Posts: 187
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 2:59 pm

Re: Graduate School Applications - graduating with no clue

Post by noojens » Wed Feb 10, 2010 3:43 am

MacCutcheon60 wrote:Oh, and buy stock in Apple
haha

geshi
Posts: 200
Joined: Tue Dec 01, 2009 12:01 am

Re: Graduate School Applications - graduating with no clue

Post by geshi » Wed Feb 10, 2010 3:44 am

MacCutcheon60 wrote:Hi Dana, I would recommend starting with the webpages of various physics departments you might be interested in. Searching by a particular subfield of physics that you're interested in can help narrow things down. G'luck with everything.
Am I missing something? Isn't Dana's post from 2004? I doubt they need advice anymore. Maybe they still do, I dunno.

bubba_bones
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Mar 02, 2010 11:54 am

Re: Graduate School Applications - graduating with no clue

Post by bubba_bones » Tue Mar 02, 2010 12:09 pm

TO all the successful applicants here:

Did you write a research proposal in your statement ??

Do you think writing research proposals makes your statement stronger ??

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grae313
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Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 8:46 pm

Re: Graduate School Applications - graduating with no clue

Post by grae313 » Tue Mar 02, 2010 1:30 pm

Your statement of purpose is NOT a research proposal. It is your chance to write about yourself, your skills, and your experiences and how such things in your life have prepared you for graduate school. I wrote in detail about my past research experiences and described my interests for future research in broad terms, but you are definitely not supposed to write a proposal for future research unless specifically asked to do so in a research proposal.

mobytish
Posts: 102
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 3:44 pm

Re: Graduate School Applications - graduating with no clue

Post by mobytish » Tue Mar 02, 2010 1:36 pm

I did not include a research proposal, per se. However, I did mention specific areas of interest and professors I might be interested in working with. In only one case, I also talked to the professors (during an independent visit) about the projects they were working on and where my interests might fit in. I've heard that mentioning profs might hurt if that prof is not sure about funding, but if that's the only prof you wanted to work with anyway, it might be for the best. It's a good idea to come off like you are sure of yourself and know what you want to do, but if you honestly don't, don't worry about it. Consider mentioning a few areas of interest and expressing a desire to explore them further.

bubba_bones
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Mar 02, 2010 11:54 am

Re: Graduate School Applications - graduating with no clue

Post by bubba_bones » Wed Mar 03, 2010 6:51 am

Thanks mobytish and grae313 for the advices...

Can you provide me a link sample essays which you find to be the quite effective ??
(The links mentioned above in Grant's post are not working! )

mobytish
Posts: 102
Joined: Sun Nov 01, 2009 3:44 pm

Re: Graduate School Applications - graduating with no clue

Post by mobytish » Wed Mar 03, 2010 7:36 am

Trying searching google Sample Statement of Purpose Physics or a bunch of other combinations.

Here's one of the results I got when I searched:
http://www.eduers.com/Graduate/Sample_S ... ysics.html



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